I had a Birthday on Saturday, and Lo, it was Good.

The baby woke me at 6:15, which was less than an ideal beginning, but I convinced him it would be in his best interest, and in the best interest of household harmony, if he went back to sleep until the sun came up, and bought myself another 45 minutes of snoozing before he was awake again. A birthday miracle!

After my wife got up (we take turns sleeping in on weekend days, so each of us gets to sleep until the unheard-of hour of 9 a.m. at least once a week), we drove over to my favorite cheap brunch place, the Coffee Mill, where I indulged in the Mill #2 special, something I'd normally never touch because of its artery clogging power -- three eggs, bacon, ham, AND sausage links, plus silver dollar pancakes and hash browns. It was everything I'd hoped. I was not hungry again for a long time.

I also put some paperback urban fantasy novels on the Book Exchange shelf there, as recompense for all the Hard Case Crime paperbacks I've snagged from the shelf in the past couple of months. Whoever's putting those books there: thanks!

We braved the rain and went to the library, where I got enough books to keep me occupied for the rest of the year -- lots of Ken Bruen, some Jason Starr, and some non-fiction about Evil.

That night we got a babysitter for a couple of hours, and Heather took me out to a nice dinner at Luka's Tap Room (where I ordered a burger so large, so impressive in its majesty, that I could not quite finish it; I think it's the first time I've failed to finish a burger in living memory). Afterward we retrieved the kid, put him to bed, and had a pleasant evening of watching Let the Right One In, eating cherry pie (I'm not a fan of cake, except for carrot cake, which I got at the work party on Thursday), and passing the rest of the evening in ways unsuitable for a family publication.

A certain kind benefactor sent Heather and me an Amazon gift card for Xmas, with an admonition not to spend it all on the kid. So we combined that card with some birthday money and got a new digital camera to replace the one that only kinda sorta works ever since we dropped it on that lava rock in Hawaii last time we were there. Very exciting! And having a decent workhorse digital camera is important when one has an adorable child to extensively document.

My mother-in-law stunned us by buying me a new Tivo for my birthday, as our old one bit the dust last month. Which means we can once more begin stockpiling episodes of Sesame Street and dance-based reality shows and Criminal Minds for our future delectation! Heather got me some new cookware, and Dragon Age: Origins for the PC. I was well and truly birthdayed.

Now I'm 33. My palindrome year begins. Let's hope it beats the crap out of the last lousy year.